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Flavor exactly matches: the barrel takes center stage, but not in a way that it washes away the stout base. Brew loses some of the kick-in-the-teeth roasted bitterness that base IST has, but it compensates with a perfect smoothness.

Extremely smooth brew. Any fan of BBA stouts should be well pleased. You do lose out a bit on IST's bite (think Narwhal vs BBA Narwhal, a very clear parallel IMO), but it's a beautiful and smooth beer.

Vintage 2012. Bottle #1140. Pours black with thin brown head. Aroma is dried fruit, vanilla, easy on bourbon. Smells like a BBA barley Wine. Flavor is sweet, fruity and again easy on the bourbon. Medium body with good carbonation. Very good. Ready to drink now which is fine cause I am drinking it now....

The beer opens with a little bit of gushing and pours a dark brown color with red highlights and a tan head. The aroma is chocolate, dark fruit, alcohol and roasted malt. The flavor is roasted and burnt malt with some smoke, oak and chocolate. Medium to thick mouthfeel and low carbonation. Other than a little bit of oak in the flavor, I didn't get much barrel-aged character out of the beer.

I think the beer may have been slightly infected because a few of the people I tried it with got some slight infection notes in the flavor, but I couldn't tell. I liked the beer, but I think I liked the regular version as much or better.

T: The flavor follows suit. Heavy notes of vanilla and liquorish both blended smoothly together in perfect harmony. Chocolate notes are evident on the pallet. If this was aged in bourbon barrels it is hard to tell, but their is a booziness to this beer.

MF: The mouthfeel is the killer here. Way over carbonated and a little to thin to be a huge stout.

Overall, I would say I'm disappointing, but definitely not impressed. The barrel aging and blending of chocolate flavors could have been done much better. The mouthfeel is almost a disaster, but this still manages to be a decent brew.